The gunner's role in weapons such as mortars, is to receive the fire command, lay in the gun, and then fire the round. Laying in the mortar involves pointing it, vertically and horizontally in such a way that the round will impact in a given target area. However, gunners may be required to physically point, calibrate, and re-orient the mortar using an optical sight unit that is mounted onto the mortar tube.
Upon firing, the generated firing shock level might be sufficient to saturate the digital MEMS type electronic components, such as the inexpensive magnetic sensors and inertial sensors (e.g., inertial measurement units (IMUs)) used in the pointing device of the portable mortars. Saturation of the electrical components, such as the magnetic sensors and inertial sensors, refers to the condition of the sensors being subjected to conditions outside of the sensing limits of the sensor. For example, a saturated sensor may display maximum or minimum readings, a signal indicating that the condition is outside the sensing range or a clipping of the output. As a result, once the portable mortar is fired, the saturation of the electronic components causes the orientation system to become inaccurate, thus altering the realignment system, and debilitating the pointing device from being able to provide orientation information. Consequently, the portable mortar will then have to be manually reoriented.
Larger mortars, Howitzers, and other complex weapon systems that are provided with a digital fire control device, dispense with the need to use optical sights, and avoid the problem facing smaller, portable weapon systems. These larger weapon systems are digitally pointed by means of a computer (or a processor) that computes the pointing direction of the gun tubes, and provides accurate, real time orientation instructions to a pointing device on the weapon systems.
However, the cost of integrating or retrofitting the portable mortar systems with a digital fire control device used in the larger weapon systems, is prohibitively expensive.
Prior to the advent of the present invention, there has been no successful, practical, and cost effective solution to overcoming the problems associated with the saturation of the electronic components. Therefore, there still remains an unsatisfied need for a digital positioning system that interfaces with portable weapon systems, for automatically stabilizing and realigning the portable weapons, through and after the firing shock.